Cedar Point in the Fall: Is It Worth It?

Unless you know what they expected to do with respect to pricing after season end, you wont know what action they actually take means.

Trackmaster said:
And you probably had people who paid full price that day who waited in 4 hour stand-by lines, as the Gold pass people got high priority access against them. I think anybody who actually paid for admission that day would be justified in getting their money back. Not only did the Gold pass make the park jam packed, it also put free Fast Lanes in the hands of almost everyone who went.

The free Fastlane Plus was for renewing passholders, not new Gold purchasers - but that still means a lot of people are going to have them that otherwise wouldn't on these weekends. You'd expect them to only dole out a certain number of Fastlane Plus wristbands per day. Since they gave away so many, they'd theoretically not have as many to sell on some of these Fridays and Sundays in the fall. Or do they still actually sell just as many and then add the freebies in on top of it? I'd hope not, but I don't know the answer.

Anyone paying full price to visit Cedar Point or most any non-Disney park probably deserves to be overcharged because they aren't paying much attention. :)

The accounting questions and possible answers are kind of interesting to me.

Cedar Fair's 2018 annual report actually addresses the accounting issue (who'd have thunk it) in a section titled Revenue Recognition:

Most revenues are recognized on a daily basis based on actual guest spend at the properties. Revenues from multi-use products, including season-long products for admission, dining, beverage and other products, are recognized over the estimated number of uses expected for each type of product. The estimated number of uses is reviewed and may be updated periodically during the operating season prior to the ticket or product expiration, which generally occurs no later than the close of the operating season. The number of uses is estimated based on historical usage adjusted for current period trends.

I’ve always wondered how they account for all-season dining or drinks... Clearly that fee is divided up, but I seem to recall them having a price attached to each drink and meal and then discounting it off? Otherwise I don’t see how per-capita spending is gonna go up too much with all the folks paying one price to eat all season.

ShaneDenmark said:

I’ve always wondered how they account for all-season dining or drinks... Clearly that fee is divided up, but I seem to recall them having a price attached to each drink and meal and then discounting it off? Otherwise I don’t see how per-capita spending is gonna go up too much with all the folks paying one price to eat all season.

Its almost like this whole thing is just a big rouse to coerce people into buying Fast Lanes. At first they charged you per ride.Then they charged you for admission.Then they made admission cheap so you'd buy overpriced chicken fingers.Then they made season passes cheap so you'll buy even more chicken fingers.Then they gave you the chicken fingers for free, and made the Fast Lane a big thing so you're back to paying per admission again if you ever want to actually get on anything.

Then they build rides with terrible capacity to make you buy FastLane to get on it!!!!!1111one <rolls eyes>

"Your mom in bed: Is it worth it?"

(Sorry)

To answer davies182’s question and Lost Kause’s question, no. Neither of those things are worth it.